Hamilton fire officials rule out arson as cause of house blaze

An early morning fire on the 200 block of Franklin Street caused major damage to this house.Jenna Pizzi/Times of Trenton

HAMILTON – Fire officials have decided that an early morning fire that appears to have started inside the kitchen of an abandoned home is not suspicious in origin.

"Nowhere is it suspicious or considered arson," fire marshal Scott McCormick said this afternoon.

Crews were called to the scene of the blaze on the corner of Woolsey and East Franklin streets just after 4 a.m. and found smoke coming from the building, said Lt. Tim Sharpley of the Rusling Hose Fire Company.

The person who reported the fire said there may have been squatters staying inside the two-and-a-half-story building, Sharpley said. There was no injuries reported at the scene.

The fire was concentrated in the first floor kitchen in the back of the house, Sharpley said. A portion of the second floor collapsed as crews worked to extinguish the flames for about an hour in freezing temperatures, he said.